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Pros

Pro

Binary delta for faster transfer times

Yum supports delta-rpms which allow transmitting only the parts of the package that have changed.

Pro

Avoids dependency hell

All the metadata for installed software is stored into a XML file. This is used to avoid conflicting dependencies among packages. What's more, YUM also automatically syncs remote metadata to the local client in order to avoid failures if a command is not run at the correct interval.

Pro

Allows for complex dependency definitions

Alongside allowing dependency on a certain package, it allows depending on a library, versioned symbol, or a GAC'd Mono assembly.

Pro

Supports multiple verification methods

Supports verification with GPG and MD5.

Pro

Supports multiple compression methods

Supports gzip, bzip2, lzma, or xz compression.

Cons

Con

Can be very slow to download headers if not on broadband

Yum can be much slower than other package managers if the internet speed is not at least average to high.